The Danger of A Single Story

“The Danger of a Single Story”. It is incredible how one single story can mold our perception of something. More often than not, first impressions stick and one isolated mistake can lead to people forever having a certain view of you. This goes both ways, everyone has at some point judged someone without truly knowing them. You see this en movies, literature, and life: a single story-accurate or not-shapes the mentalities of people. Single stories form stereotypes and create certain mentalities about people.

            In her talk Adichie mentions how the British books she read made her think a certain way. She thought of only white people who lived in a British way. I can relate to that, at a young age my mom showed me movies and read books to me that were mostly written in the USA. Consequently, the characters I thought of in my imagination were Americans more than Colombian. Even my perceptions of certain daily aspects of my life were shaped by those books and movies; I pictured Christmas with snow and ice every-needless to say there is no snow in my country-and I recognized thanksgiving as a traditional holiday even though it doesn’t exist in most of the world. But I have also felt that people have certain perceptions of my country and me. This summer I was in a summer camp in NYC-a literature class- a girl was surprised at my English-my vocabulary more than my accent-and the knowledge I had of English. A few days later, I sat in the park of the University wearing a Miles Davis shirt. A guy walked up to me and said: Do you have jazz in Colombia? I answered that there was a small jazz scene but nothing special. Later that same day, the girl asked me if I knew how to salsa dance. I told her I did, but it still surprised me how salsa is associated with almost all latinos even though it is mostly Cuban or Puerto Rican.

            Everyone has certain perception-they may be derogatory or not-about other people. When they asked me if I could salsa dance-they were sure I did-it wasn’t with bad intention but it was a stereotype they had. Probably most of this stereotypes are cause by either a movie or book-through the means of globalization-or by a certain isolated event by an individual. Everyone has to stay away from creating misperceptions about others, particularly because anyone can be a victim of those veils of judgment.